Kumaraswami Sastri, J.

1. This is a suit by the minor plaintiffs suing by their mother and next friend for maintenance. The case for the plaintiffs is that their mother Chinnammal was, shortly after she attained puberty, kept by the 1st defendant who is a Nattukkottai Chetty continuously and exclusively as his concubine, that the 1st and 2nd plaintiffs are his illegitimate sons and the third plaintiff his illegitimate daughter. Maintenance is claimed at Rs. 500 a month for all the three plaintiffs. The suit was originally filed against the 1st defendant only, but he died pending suit and Defendants 2 to 5, his undivided uncles and uncles sons, have been brought on the record. The 1st defendant filed a written statement denying that the plaintiffs mother Chinnammal was continuously kept by him as concubine from 1901 to 1919. He states that Chinnammal was a dancing-girl who did not abandon her usual mode of life which was that of prostitution and that he used to visit her occasionally. He denies that the plaintiffs are his children by Chinnammal. He denies that he was at any time maintaining the plaintiffs or began neglecting them from July 1919. He admits that demands were ma